


Singularity #2: "Miracle Monday"

by Marc_Quill



Series: Marc Quill's Singularity [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Conspiracy Thriller, M/M, Mystery, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-11 22:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7909399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marc_Quill/pseuds/Marc_Quill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye’s search for answers to her mystery continues as tragedy hits close to home for Finn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**_Previously on_ Singularity…**

_“Continuing our top story: Reports have come in from the Queen Street East area of a woman who was said to have survived a head-on collision with a truck late Saturday night. The young woman, described as having purple/pink hair, immediately got up and was chased by Toronto Police. However, sources close to Chief Alexa MacDonald have denied that these officers were affiliated with Toronto Police. We have also received unconfirmed reports of a gang violence incident in the Church and Wellesley district that was foiled by a mystery person._

_Yesterday morning, a truck parked at Yonge-Dundas Square exploded without warning, causing a multiple-car accident. The incident surprisingly ended happily when a female figure in a grey hood — suspected by some to be the same woman from the Saturday truck incident — rescued several trapped people with a male associate. The victims were all said to have only suffered minor injuries. There are also yet more unconfirmed reports of another incident inside the PATH Walkway involving armed men and the two Good Samaritans from the wrecked car mountain._

_Stay with City-One News for the very latest on these and other stories in and around our city.”_

—

**Chapter I – Mysteries Abound**

Skye struggled to wake herself up after a particularly long and comforting sleep, but she managed to get her eyes open after a moment. When she did, she saw the familiar sight of Finn’s apartment at the SafeHaven Homeless Shelter… but there was something wrong. The walls began to dissolve into a strange goo, while the floor cracked to reveal stone pillars rising from below. Horrified at the sight before her, Skye tried to get herself off the couch to warn Finn of something about to happen. But, she soon saw her hands and feet shackled by chains and the couch she was lying on substituted with some sort of a steel bed.

Once the room completely melted into a puddle of unnatural liquid, the friendly confines of Finn’s apartment was replaced with a bizarrely-built laboratory inhabited by cloaked figures who moved in an incredibly odd and disturbing manner. The architecture of the lab was warped and the eerie figures looked like they were conducting a test… with Skye as their unwilling test subject.

Skye tried to break herself free of the shackles, but to no avail. Skye’s incredible superhuman strength had failed her when she needed it the most. She was virtually defenseless in this perilous situation. She tried to cry out for any sort of help… only to find that nothing was coming out of her mouth at all.

One of the ghastly scientist figures approached Skye, its movements stilted and monstrous. Its eyes began to glow in a piercing hue of red, nearly blinding Skye with its illuminated stare.

“Ourrrrr s-s-s-subject is reaaaaaady….” the demonic-like figure hissed in a heavily distorted voice. “begin the experimentssssss…”

With that, more of the spectral figures stood and surrounded the badly weakened Skye and reached out towards her, eventually engulfing her in a blanket of darkness that she couldn’t escape.

Before her eyes snapped open, the sight of an ethereal woman was the last thing that Skye saw amidst the inescapable darkness she found herself in. This woman was reaching out to Skye and was calling her name… almost in an attempt to save her.

—

**_Finn’s Apartment, SafeHaven Homeless Shelter — January 18th, 2016_ **

Finn was abruptly awakened by the sight of Skye screaming uncontrollably in her sleep. He immediately got up, ran over to the couch she was sleeping on and shook her awake to get her back to normal. Finn eventually stopped shaking Skye, transitioning to turn it into a hug of comfort (Yes, Finn has been hugging Skye quite a bit these past two days…).

“Hey, hey, Skye, don’t worry, it’s me,” Finn said as he held the twenty year-old in an embrace, “It’s Finn. You’re fine now. You were just having a really bad dream.”

Skye shook her head to try and get her bearings back. It wasn’t the first time she had these kinds of nightmares tormenting her, but they felt like going through a new form of hell each time she had them.

“At least you didn’t try to throw water in my face, so thanks for that,” Skye dryly joked, which elicited a smile of relief on Finn’s face. “Because if you did that, I’d probably would’ve punched you so hard, you’d end up with a concussion.”

“I guess I should consider myself lucky,” Finn sighed while opening the fridge to get ingredients for breakfast. “I don’t think getting concussed by the girl who saved me a couple of days ago would be a good look on me, eh?”

Skye let out an irritated sigh at Finn’s remark about her while stretching herself to get ready for the day.

It had been two days since Finn encountered Skye in an alleyway near the former Maple Leaf Gardens after being saved by her from a gang of homophobic thugs. There was still a great deal of things he didn’t know about her, but Finn was more than appreciative of Skye’s immediate presence in his life — even if the sentiment didn’t feel like it was mutual at times on her end.

“What exactly was that dream you were having?” Finn asked while eating his mac & cheese breakfast on the kitchen counter.

“It was like I was waking up here one moment,” Skye began to recall, also having some of the mac & cheese that Finn made, “But then I found myself trapped in some creepy-ass lab. I tried to escape, but I was too weak and I couldn’t call anyone for help. Then I was attacked by these demonic-looking… things that tried to experiment on me or something. And then I was awake here again. Thanks to you.”

Skye neglected to mention the angelic woman she saw before waking up, not wanting to confuse Finn even further.

“You really have a lot of messed-up dreams, Skye.” Finn remarked jokingly.

“Oh, you have no idea…” Skye shook her head dismissively in reply.

The sound of the apartment door being knocked interrupted the conversation Skye and Finn were having. By the way it was being knocked, there was a sense of urgency from whoever was at the door. Finn didn’t hesitate to head on over to open the door and see who it was.

A woman, who looked just a bit older than Finn met him at the door. She had a slightly thick build, with shoulder-length red/brown hair. Her name was Kimmy Anderson, another one of the tenants at SafeHaven who had moved in just last December. While Finn didn’t consider Kimmy a “close” friend by any chance, he still appreciated her as a neighbour. She normally had a cheery disposition about life, that was not the case today. A veil of horror permeated from her face, and Finn was ready to hear out just why Kimmy decided to come at the moment.

“Finn… you need to come to my apartment!” Kimmy shrieked with a dreadful tone, “Something really horrible has happened!”

“But wh—”

“Just hurry!!!” Kimmy shouted in response, dragging Finn out of the door. Skye decided to follow suit, taking her jacket and also walking out the door.

“Wait, Kimmy, can you explain what’s happened anyway?” Finn wondered.

“So, I get back from a Niagara Falls weekend stay hoping to see my fiance Isaac at my apartment again,” Kimmy began her story, “then I see my apartment just now and…..oh god.”

Kimmy, Finn, and Skye reached the apartment and were met by Toronto Police officers and Miss Meredith Meads (the head landlord of SafeHaven) standing in front of it. Despite that, the opened door behind the officers revealed closet drawers smashed everywhere, the bed in tatters, clothes flung all over the room, and even splashes of blood here and there.

“W-what happened, Miss Meads?” Finn mumbled nervously. Kimmy tried to run through the officers standing in a line in front of the door to check up on her fiance, but she was stopped.

“Early this morning, we… we got a report of a violent incident taking place in Ms. Anderson’s apartment over there,” Meredith Meads said forlornly, “The assailant behind this has disappeared and may still be roaming this building. That is why, for the safety of all tenants, I’m asking you to take Ms. Anderson and that young purple-hair girl there to stay in your apartment, Mr. Finwick.”

—

**_Later That Morning – Grounded_ **

“YOU WANT US TO WHAT?!”  Finn yelled at the top of his lungs in a rare display of anger.

“I’m serious, Finn,” Skye answered while biting a chocolate bar she found in the refrigerator, “We need to check out your friend Kimmy’s apartment.”

“But Miss Meads explicitly told us not to leave our apartments, Skye,” Finn protested, “What you’re suggesting is that we disobey her just because you’re curious. There’s cops all around the building! They’ll arrest us! And besides, they’ve got this investigation handled.”

While Finn and Skye were having a rather spirited discussion, Kimmy was sitting on Finn’s bed, emotionally shaken at what could’ve possibly happened to her fiance Isaac while she was away for the weekend.

“Last night, if I remember correctly, _you_ were apparently ‘all in’ searching my little private eye investigation into my shitty memories,” Skye reminded Finn of their conversation yesterday at the Poutine Shack. “And now you’re ‘all out’ just because we’re disobeying being grounded.”

“Well, why do you want to see that room anyway, Skye?” Finn questioned his new friend’s line of thinking.

“Call it…. a hunch,” Skye admitted, finishing up her chocolate bar. “I think there may be something going on here that could give us a new lead to whatever’s been happening to me.”

“I guess I’ll take your word for it,” Finn conceded. He went over to Kimmy and began to comfort her. “You just seem to attract this kind of weird shit… and I’ve only known you for a couple of days.”

“Uhh….” Kimmy squeaked out while raising her hand to get the attention of Skye. “How do we plan on exactly getting to my apartment? We’re locked shut here, and there’s police officers everywhere.”

“They’ll catch us if we even step one foot out of your apartment!”

“The window,” Finn suggested. “Your apartment is just three doors away, right, Kimmy? If we could get out of my window and just make our way to your apartment, we could easily slip in without the cops knowing.” He grabbed a screwdriver from under his bed (Stephen O’Day had left it well before the Toronto Marlies came calling; he had taken workshops on how to build things in high school) and began to work on loosening the mesh guarding that was in front of the actual glass window itself. Once that was out of the way, Finn opened the window.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Skye looked at both Finn and Kimmy and motioned towards the now-opened window.

“This case ain’t gonna solve itself, Finwick.”

Since Finn’s apartment was on the first floor, there really wasn’t any trouble to get to Kimmy’s room. All they had to do was simply walk on the grass behind the windows and just walk to the window that was in Kimmy’s room. Trying to get inside the room through the window, on the other hand, was another story.

“You don’t suppose you could use your screwdriver to ope—” Kimmy looked to Finn for an idea on how to open the door, only to be interrupted by the “direct approach”, courtesy of Skye. She used her fist to smash the glass of the window, even breaking through the mesh window screen in the process. Kimmy stared at Skye in horror, while Finn simply shrugged at his friend’s show of strength.

“If either of you had a better idea, I would’ve loved to hear it thirty seconds ago,” Skye sarcastically remarked.

“After you guys, I guess.”

The hole Skye had made through the window of Kimmy’s apartment was big enough for her, Finn, and Kimmy to step inside. Upon entering through the hole, the three were met with a room ravaged like never before. There were the destroyed clothes, bed, drawers and blood splatters that they had seen earlier.

“Um, Skye…” Finn attempted to get her attention frantically. “You might want to take a look at the wall here.”

Skye listened to the suggestion and had a look at the wall Finn was referring to, she was left frozen in shock at what she saw. It was the arrowhead symbol from her visions and nightmares. The very same symbol that Brandt and his Repossession Task Force agents had on them when Skye and Finn had encountered them last night. She didn’t know how to process any of this, her face turning into a thousand-eyed stare.

“Finn, is your friend alright?” Kimmy questioned. “She’s just… standing there.”

He went over to where Skye was standing and tried to get her attention. Snapping his fingers, making strange gestures with his hands, even dancing around like a fool, you name it. However, Skye’s trance-like focus was still on the bloody symbol crudely splashed on the wall. She had never even met Kimmy or her fiance, so the arrowhead rearing its ugly head once again here only serve to further perplex Skye.

After an uncomfortably long period of silence from Skye, she finally spoke up. “Uh, Kimmy, is it, right? Do you know anything about that symbol in blood, or did your boyfriend have any knowledge?”

“He… never mentioned anything about that disgusting thing you’re looking at,” Kimmy began to tear up. Her thoughts were still on the possibly grisly fate that befell her fiance. “Isaac was always honest with me and never kept anything hidden.”

“Guys…erm…. I mean… girls?” Finn yelled to get both Skye and Kimmy’s attention. “I think I found something else here.” He picked up a tattered green jacket that was behind the drawer beside the dismantled bed. The jacket had a few holes in it and blood that had long turned into a brown color, denoting that whatever transpired probably happened hours ago, long before Kimmy had arrived from her weekend getaway.

Skye instinctively took the dirty jacket from Finn, having a look at it herself. Something was nasty was lurking at the bottom of this crime scene and she knew it. She also noticed something odd sticking out of the front pocket of the jacket. It was a business card that read:

**DAILY HARVEST FOOD BANK**

**502 SPADINA AVE**

**TORONTO ON**

She gave the Daily Harvest card to Finn, who recognized its significance right away. He had volunteered there last year during Thanksgiving with Leo and Kimmy, being the very same place where Kimmy found and fell in love with Isaac. They were regulars at Daily Harvest due to their frequent volunteering.

“Finn, are you up for a little field trip?” Skye turned to her not-quite-partner, who was already expressing his excitement at the proposition. “Oh, right. I forgot. Of course you’re ready for it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Act II – Charitable Excesses**

**_Daily Harvest Food Bank – 11:30am_ **

Skye had never taken a ride inside a streetcar for as long as she could remember (being constantly on the run with little-to-no memories of your past can do that to you), but she seemed unnaturally fascinated by the red-and-white TTC streetcar she and Finn were riding on the way to Daily Harvest Food Bank. Finn already got himself acclimated to the gruff, “badass” persona that Skye seemed to have almost all the time, so it gave him a bit of a fuzzy feeling on the inside to see her be fascinated by the sights of the city that she never really got a chance to know.

“Well, someone seems very mesmerized by our fair city,” Finn said as he watched Skye look out the window contemplatively at sights like Queen’s Park and the University of Toronto. She watched U of T students pass by, talking amongst one another, lamenting that she never really got a chance to live out a life like that.

Moments after arriving at their stop, Skye and Finn walked for about a minute on Spadina Avenue, before finally reaching the two-storey Daily Harvest building. Unusually, the place was swarming with police cars parked at the front. The door also had police tape stretched across. Something was already afoot, and the two had just arrived there.

To avoid being spotted, The two decided to huddle right in front of the Silver Dollar’s entrance, trying to plot out their next move.

“Y’don’t suppose you have another way in?” Finn asked nervously.

“Oh, I think I might have an idea…” Skye looked at Finn with a sort-of smile on her face. She had a plan in mind. And judging by the look on Finn’s face, it would be a plan he certainly wouldn’t be taking a liking to.

—

Finn approached the group of Toronto Police officers talking amongst themselves outside the Daily Harvest building. He briefly turned to Skye, who looked on from the gate in-between the Silver Dollar and Daily Harvest with a smirk of sorts on her face.

“Um… officer, I don’t know how to admit this to you,” Finn nervously began to say, “but, I seem to have misplaced my phone. Or someone might’ve stolen it. I really dunno.”

“Do you have any recollection on where you last left your phone, sir?” One of the officers asked.

“I have no idea, sorry.” Finn responded before briefly glancing at Skye, who was on her way to the gate. “But, enough about me, guys. Tell me, how’s everything?”

In reality, Finn’s cellphone was with Skye, who had taken it for the purposes of taking pictures of any evidence she found inside Daily Harvest. Finn just decided to go with the story that a thief apparently stole his phone on the spot.

While Finn was busy distracting the cops, Skye hopped over the tall black gate and snuck her way into the alley. Noticing a door to her left, she quickly went against the wall to avoid being spotted by random people passing by. As soon as the coast was clear, Skye knocked the door with just enough force to open without arousing suspicion, then slipping inside quickly. Upon entering, she spotted two staircases: one leading to the second floor and another to the basement, as well as another door.

 _“If I were a would-be murderer, where would I be hiding?”_ Skye muttered quietly to herself.

On a whim, Skye just decided to choose going to the closed door, kicking it down with her super strength. She entered into the darkened wide hallway and saw a soup kitchen that was ransacked. Tables were turned over, chairs tossed all around, and various bowls strewn all about. In a corner near the serving tables, there seemed to be someone who was lurched over and stationary. This person was surrounded by a puddle of red liquid. Was it blood?

Skye approached the sitting person slowly, only to get unexpectedly kicked aside by the person. As she recovered, Skye got a good look at the unknown person, who had bloodshot eyes and an appearance that suggested he may have been somewhere he shouldn’t be. His dirty brown hair was frayed, bruises and cuts appeared all over his body, and his clothes ravaged beyond belief. Using Finn’s cellphone camera, she got a good snap of the mysterious man. Unfortunately, the bright flash from the phone startled the man, eliciting a bizarre reaction from him.

The man hissed at Skye before running off into another hallway to escape. Skye quickly recovered and followed suit. While the mysterious man’s surprising speed as he ran would have left any ordinary human in the dust, Skye certainly was no ordinary human. She nearly managed to match the man’s speed with her own burst of near-superhuman speed, both of them running up the stairs at a breakneck pace. The man forcefully grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and tossed it at Skye, who dodged it by doing a jumping roll over the extinguisher flying right at her, then following it up by leaping off the wall nearest to her. Undeterred, the man kept running thru the second floor hallway.

“STOP CHASING ME!” the man screamed out in fear, “I JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE!”

“Well, if y’didn’t try to behead me with a fire extinguisher…” Skye muttered to herself.

Unexpectedly, the man stopped his run in front of a door at the end of the hallway. He turned his head towards Skye’s direction with a deranged look on his face. Within a split-second, he lunged at Skye and tackled her. The man tried to claw at her face, but he got kicked hard into the wall on the opposite end of the hallway for his troubles.

Skye stood herself up and loomed over the unkempt man. She really didn’t have the time for any of his funny business, her less-than-impressed look on her face evidence of that fact. She balled up her hands into a fist, suggesting that she was done playing around.

“You better have a damn good explanation for this nonsense, whoever you are,” Skye warned grimly. “Otherwise, you’re gonna end up with a lot worse than broken bones.”

“WHY WON’T YOU ALL JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!?” the man shouted out before he leaped up and kicked Skye in the gut, sending her flying into the wall before running into the room at the end of the hallway.

With a look of annoyance on her face, Skye again lifted herself back to her feet and went to the small room where the man had entered… only to find no trace of him whatsoever. The only signs of his presence were an overturned desk and a broken window — one that the man presumably jumped out of. If he did leap out the window, the strange man had probably made his exit from the Daily Harvest building by the time Skye got into the room. She was too late.

 _“Might as well see what the fuss was all about…”_ Skye thought to herself as she headed back downstairs to the main dining hall area — specifically, the corner where she had originally found the strange man huddled over.

Upon arriving to that corner in question, Skye investigated the red puddle to check to see if it was blood. When doing so, she noticed a broken syringe — one that was apparently recently used. Taking a closer look at it, Skye noticed a peculiar symbol resembling the letter “psi” in the Greek alphabet printed on the base of the syringe. On the opposite side there were words:

**PSI MEDIPLUS**

**SYRINGE SOLUTIONS**

Skye took the syringe and put it in the front pocket of her jacket. Whatever Psi MediPlus was, she knew that they more-than-likely had to do with the strange man’s condition and his apparent set of post-human abilities. It was yet another one of Skye’s gut feelings cropping up. In the meantime, there was one thing she needed to check up on: Finn.

Skye peeked her head out the door she had entered and saw Finn laughing it up with the police officers outside. She couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but Skye was beyond relieved that Finn didn’t get himself arrested for any idiocy. She made sure to subtly motion to Finn that it was time to go. He turned to the alley where Skye was at and affirmed her signal.

“I’ll let you guys know if I find my phone or if the thief ever shows themselves again,” Finn said as he began to walk off to Spadina Crescent, making sure to wave goodbye to the cops, “Have a great day, officers!”

—

**_The Park Behind Daily Harvest – Moments Later…_ **

“I’ve got to admit, Finn, maybe you’re not completely an idiot,” Skye noted, showing surprise amazement at his distracting of the cops. “Good work back there.”

“Um, thanks?” Finn responded in confusion, “But that is the absolute last time I’m ever having to distract a police officer by talking to them! Oh, um, anyways, did you find anything inside the Daily Harvest?”

“Well, three things, actually,” Skye said. “For one, I believe I found our suspect from your friend Kimmy’s apartment…”

“And…”

“There was something… odd about him.” Skye began to tell of her encounter with the strange man inside Daily Harvest. “He had unbelievable strength and speed… almost like the powers that I have. It was weird as shit, I have to admit.”

“Very weird, indeed,” Finn conceded.

“Take a look at this, too,” Skye said while showing Finn the image of the strange man that she took with the cellphone. “Look like anyone familiar to you?”

“Oh, man,” Finn realized the familiarity of the man in the cellphone photo, “That guy in the picture. That can’t be Kimmy’s fiance… can it?”

“Oddly enough, that guy — if he’s even Kimmy’s boyfriend at all — wasn’t the weirdest part of it all, believe it or not,” Skye continued with her recap. “I also found this.” She pulled out the Psi MediPlus syringe that she found in the dining room area and showed it to Finn. “I think that guy who I was chasing may have used it on himself.”

“Psi MediPlus?” Finn stared long and hard at the writing on the syringe, realizing a familiarity with the name, “I think I may have heard that name before…. but I can’t exactly put my finger on it.”

“Worry about it back at your apartment, genius,” Skye tapped Finn on the shoulder, “I think your friend Kimmy is starting to get very worried. She might want to hear about what I showed you.”

—

**_SafeHaven Homeless Shelter — Later…_ **

Miraculously, nobody bothered to check Finn’s apartment to see if he had violated Miss Meads’ “grounding” order once he and Skye returned to SafeHaven. They entered thru the window they had opened earlier and found Kimmy lying down in bed and watching TV. Finn had a sigh of relief that neither Miss Meads or the Toronto Police never suspected anything odd. Skye, however, really didn’t share the sentiment, as it never was an issue for her — something that kind of horrified Finn.

Skye approached Kimmy and showed her the picture she had taken with Finn’s cellphone of the strange man she had encountered at Daily Harvest. Kimmy’s immediate reaction confirmed Finn’s earlier suspicions of that strange man. That man was indeed Isaac, but certainly not as Kimmy knew him. Skye simply looked on, arms crossed, and not wanting to do or say anything that might set Kimmy off emotionally even further.

“What happened to him?” Kimmy said. “He was feeling okay when I left town last Friday.”

“I honestly don’t know, but I can’t promise that I won’t hurt your boyfriend if I ever run into him again,” Skye admitted. She hadn’t exactly figured out how to pull her punches just yet, which came with the territory of having extraordinary superhuman strength. “But… I’ll try not to try and break every bone in his body.”

“I’d like that.” Kimmy responded, trying to fight back tears.

Meanwhile, Finn got on his laptop and began searching for Psi MediPlus on the Internet, also continuing his observing of the syringe that Skye had given to him. The picture from his cellphone was also fresh on his mind, as well. On his searching, Finn found that Psi MediPlus was one of the nation’s leading medical syringe manufacturers. What interested him further was the fact that Psi MediPlus was just a subsidiary of something called “SDI Medical Systems”.

Finn clicked on the interlocking SDI logo at the bottom of the Psi MediPlus page and was greeted with a well-polished homepage toting the company’s advancements in digital health and genetics.

A quote from Gerald Selfridge, founder and CEO of SDI, lined the middle of the page, “Unlocking the true potential of the human factor begins with the advancement of health solutions.” Mr. Selfridge was — according to the rather overdramatic biography on the website — one of the world’s most celebrated experts in the field of using genetic coding to help map out ways to cure life-threatening illnesses.

“Got anything on our lead?” Skye approached Finn.

“Just a bunch of crap about genetics and something called SDI that apparently owns the syringe company.” Finn rattled off the info he had just digested.

“That’s cool and all, but what does that have to do with our mystery man?” Skye asked with a hint of mild annoyance evident in her voice.

“Well, there’s the fact that Psi MediPlus is most likely linked to whatever the hell’s happened to that guy,” Finn answered back. “Their head office is in the West End of the city, so if you’d like, we can check it out…. but can we save it for tomorrow? There is absolutely no way I’m going out lat–”

“Oh, about the whole ‘going out late’ thing, Finn?” Skye interrupted. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Act III – Always On The Run**

**_Psi MediLabs Head Office – Midnight…_ **

Finn really, really, really didn’t want to be out here this late in the evening, but the desire to do right by Skye pretty much left him with no choice. So, here he was outside the head offices of Psi MediLabs near The Annex, accompanying Skye like he always did for the past two days. Working under the cover of night at least gave them an opportunity to not draw suspicion to their actions.

Aside from the two of them, there were a couple of security guards on overwatch duty at the front of the building. To ensure that nobody would get wind of their presence, Finn and Skye hid behind a row of bushes near the building’s entrance.

“You think that guy you saw at Daily Harvest, who may-or-may-not-be Kimmy’s boyfriend, might be lurking there?” Finn spoke in a hushed tone.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Skye replied, before she snuck off somewhere.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Finn began to vocalize.  “But we are absolutely not going to bea—ah… goddamnit, Skye…”

Almost instinctively, Skye ignored Finn’s protestations and snuck up behind one of the security guards, taking him out with a violent elbow to the head, undoubtedly startling the guard’s partner.

The other guard pulled out his gun and aimed it at the purple-haired wonder.

“Stay right where you are, miss,” the guard nervously approached Skye, keeping his gun firmly pointed at her.

“Alright, alright, you got me.” Skye said as she raised her arms up right away. Finn looked on from behind the bushes and saw a hint of a smile cracking on Skye’s face. She had a plan. Of course she did. She seemed to always have a plan, even if said plans usually involved hitting people in the face really hard 99% of the time.

The guard pushed his gun forward right against Skye’s head, with his index finger dangerously close to the trigger. He soon paid the price for that. Skye grabbed the guard’s arm, then slamming him to the ground on his back before knocking him out with a punch from her free hand. She looked towards Finn and only gave an expressive, yet nonchalant shrug. She then confiscated a keycard from the last guard she knocked out and took it for herself.

“Are you out of your mind!?” Finn yelled out as he emerged out of the bush and made his way towards Skye. “I know you’re all badass and such, but was _now_ really a good time to show off how tough you are!?”

“You mind keeping your voice down, Finn?” Skye said in a hushed tone, “Do you really want people to get wind of us here?”

“And… going up right to those security guards you beat up so you could kick their asses won’t?” Finn snapped in response.

“Well, I did take them out without nobody noticing, didn’t I?” Skye answered back, clearly enjoying her chance to be a bit “hands on” when it came to a situation like this.

“You might want to retract that statement,” Finn pointed to a security camera situated just above the front door.

“Alright, genius, what do you suggest we do about it, then?” Skye asked.

“I’m sure this place has a security room somewhere,” Finn began to plan out the next course of action for him and Skye. “I’ll get myself there to shut the surveillance down while you find whatever dirt you can dig up in this place.”

Skye took the keycard and inserted it into the panel situated next to the front door, opening it instantly. “You sure you can handle yourself?”

“Sure, why not?” Finn muttered while taking a walkie-talkie from one of the fallen security guards. Then he took the other one. “Buuuuut… in case I get into any trouble, best that you have one of these on hand with you.”

Finn gave Skye one of the walkie-talkies he took from the beaten-up guards. He might’ve been way in over his head by wanting to scope out the security room of the Psi MediLabs building by himself, but he at least knew that he had some backup in case things went astray.

The two entered the opened door (but not before Skye smashed the security camera outside by tossing a knife that was on one of the guards through it.) and were met with a large hallway setting topped by a stairwell right in the middle. Finn did not know where to begin with his search for the security room. He looked towards Skye for guidance.

“Hey, Finn, don’t look at me.” Skye said dismissively. “Your idea.” She walked towards the stairwell and made her way upstairs, leaving Finn on the main floor by himself.

Finn let out a grumble as he just decided to go straight ahead into a narrow hallway to find that security room.

Upstairs, Skye erred on the cautious side for once, choosing to approach the sterile hallways and doors slowly. Maybe she’d end up running into Kimmy’s fiance and see what she could do to help him. Despite that, she still assumed a fighting stance — perhaps anticipating another surprise attack coming her way. She might’ve gotten her wish as the sound of footsteps caught her attention. Skye looked to the other end of the second floor and saw a security guard making his rounds by doing a sweep of the area.

The guard was whistling a fairly catchy tune, completely unaware of Skye’s presence nearby. This gave Skye some time to remain hidden for the time being as she then entered the door next to her. Sure enough, the guard made his way near the door Skye had entered, again completely oblivious to the fact that she was there. Once he was right in front of the door, the guard was grabbed by the shoulder and pulled right into the wall by Skye. The guard fell to the floor instantly.

Skye pulled the guard’s body by his legs into the room that she was in, then slamming the door shut. A moment later, she emerged from the room clad in the fallen security guard’s blue uniform, complete with hat (Her usual attire was safely kept inside the bag — in actuality, one of Finn’s bags — that she had on her shoulder). She pulled out a mini-tablet from the front pocket of the vest she had on, with a map of the Psi MediLabs facility displayed on screen.

A blue square with text popped-up on the screen reading “Syringe Mini-Plant” with an arrow pointing to a room on the third floor of the building. Another arrow faded into view, directing towards a room marked “Security Central”, indicating its location being the basement of all places.

“Finn, do you read? Do you copy?” Skye paged into her walkie-talkie.

“*bzzzrt* Yes, I hear you loud and clear,” Finn’s voice buzzed on the walkie-talkie, a hint of nervousness taking over.

“Okay, where are you now?” Skye replied while she traversed up the stairs to the third floor.

“Uh… I think I’m in the basement or somewhere?” Finn noted, a panicked tone clear as day in his voice.

“You’re on the right floor,” Skye assured her partner. “Keep your eyes open.” She arrived on the third floor, which consisted of a square area that surrounded the spiral stairs.

Looking across the other end of the floor, Skye saw a door that was unlike any other doors that she had come across up to this point. The door in question was fortified by what looked to be reinforced glass and two sets of security cameras above it, as well as tripwire sensors on either end of the door. There was also writing tampographed in red on it:

**WARNING: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY**

**UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS WILL BE PROSECUTED**

**REPORT UNLAWFUL ACTIVITY TO 381-6922**

“All that trouble for a syringe lab?” Skye muttered to herself. “Odd.”

Skye paced her way to the glass door, stopping right in front of it to think up her next plan of attack. For once in her life (or what she had remembered), Skye was going to have to think things through rather than rely on her usual method of brute-forcing her way through the problem at hand.

—

In the basement of the Psi MediLabs complex, Finn had heeded Skye’s advice and kept a close eye for the security room that was apparently near where he was. Surrounded by a cold, grey-brick exterior and dozens of doors lining the narrow hallways, Finn didn’t know where to begin in looking for the security room.

While Skye had successfully attained a security guard’s outfit for a disguise, Finn didn’t have such luck on his side, being left with no choice but to remain hidden to avoid being spotted by the guards roaming the area. After all, he didn’t exactly have the combat prowess that Skye naturally had. Instead, Finn had to rely on his wits to get himself out of jams like this one.

After a minute of searching that seemed like it lasted an eternity, Finn had finally found the security room at the very end of the hallway. Unfortunately, he soon noticed that the door to the security room needed a keycard to be opened. Even worse, Finn realized that he never got himself a keycard when he and Skye first entered the building.

He hid behind the stairs as two guards were about to head his way. As soon as one of the guards headed up the stairs, Finn extended his arm from in-between the railings to grab a keycard from the pocket of the second guard. Once he was sure that the guards were out of the way, Finn left the gap he was hiding and slowly walked towards the security room.

“Alright, here goes something…?” Finn mumbled as he inserted the key into the advanced lock next to the steel door.

“Access Granted,” a computerized voice stated as Finn inserted the keycard. The steel door soon slid open a few seconds later. Finn awkwardly entered the security room.

Inside the security room, Finn was met with multiple TV screens that had images of various areas throughout the Psi MediLabs building. On one of the screens, he saw Skye standing in front of the Syringe Mini-Plant door. Instinctively, Finn pulled out his walkie-talkie to contact his ally.

“Skye? Um, Skye? Hello?” Finn squeaked out while trying to page the walkie-talkie. “Do you copy?”

“Oh, good. For once I’m glad to hear from you,” Skye’s voice on the other side buzzed, “You’re in the security room, I take it?”

“Mmhmmm,” Finn answered, “And I see you’ve found yourself somewhere important.”

“And… it’s heavily fortified with next-level security measures,” Skye said.

“Can’t you just punch your way through it with your strength?” Finn asked inquisitively.

“I was thinking that maybe you could get it open from the security room instead,” Skye responded right back. “To save me the trouble of recklessly barging my way in.”

“That sounds…. sort of reasonable coming from you.” Finn said in shock. He was surprised that Skye was thinking things through instead of relying on the “direct approach” like she always did.

“Well, don’t waste time throwing a party and just get that door open somehow,” Skye sarcastically said in response.

“On it,” Finn yammered as he scrambled to find the area on the console in front of him that would open the Syringe Mini-Lab door for Skye to go through. The console itself was expansive and had a plethora of buttons for Finn to mess around with.

Finn’s eyes were focused on a panel just below the left-most column of security screens, which were marked “Special Room Controls”. One of the buttons had “Syringe Mini-Lab” on it, catching Finn’s attention. He pressed the large yellow button, and almost right away, the screen showing Skye and the Mini-Lab door began to show the door in question opening up.

“Will that do?” Finn asked.

There was no audible response from Skye, who just simply entered the now-open Syringe Mini-Lab door, something that Finn had a good look at on the security screens.

“That takes care of that, let’s see if I can turn off the sec—” Finn said to himself, before being cut short by the arrival of a trio of security guards.

“Hey you, you’re not supposed to be here!” The older of the three security guards shouted at Finn, then ordering his two men to draw their weapons at the young man in the blue hoodie.

“Ah, fuck.” Finn swore to himself for letting himself get caught.

—

Inside the Syringe Mini-Lab, Skye saw dozens of automated machines that were making syringes at a rhythmic pace. This was the nerve centre for Psi MediLabs’ syringe manufacturing operations, its designation of “Mini-Lab” being oddly deceptive because the room was fairly large. Aside from the many machines used to create the syringes, there were multiple people in blue labcoats and safety masks overseeing these machines. They were deep into their work that they didn’t notice Skye entering the room.

Skye walked cautiously to see if she could gather intel on the mystery man she encountered at Daily Harvest earlier. She snuck around slowly to avoid arousing any suspicion from the staff members working the syringe manufacturing machines. Unfortunately, the whirring from the assembling machines and all the syringes being made so quickly began to trigger a mental response within Skye. She stopped in her tracks, hands twitching ever-so-slightly, and her mind being taken to a place she really didn’t want to revisit. Images of blue liquids stored in syringes being injected into an arm, operating tables, and a man in the shadows filled Skye’s mind, beginning to overwhelm her thoughts once again. These visions were not new, but every time they entered her mind, Skye had to grapple with seemingly-new forms of mental agony that felt like an incomplete puzzle.

Unfortunately for Skye, there would be no slow and calm return to reality yet again, as the shrieking of one of the lab technicians and the Syringe Mini-Lab’s klaxon both blared loudly. Someone had somehow entered the Lab while Skye was suffering from her hallucinating.

Skye forced herself back into a state of normalcy in time to see a human-shaped blur streak past her. Even if she didn’t get a good look at what it was, the young superpowered woman had an idea at what she was about to deal with.

The unknown mass of humanity pushed aside a couple of the lab technicians and began to grab a handful of syringes — in the hopes of getting whatever fluids were supposedly in them. Skye removed her hat and tossed it aside before approaching the man gorging on the syringes. She could not believe her eyes: it was Kimmy’s fiance, the very same powered man she encountered at Daily Harvest earlier on.

Isaac, with unknown power coursing through his veins, threw an approaching lab technician into one of the syringe assembling machines before he turned his attention towards Skye.

“I TOLD YOU TO LEEEEEEAVE ME ALONE!” Isaac screamed out in a rage. “YOU ALL JUST WANT TO USE ME AND HURT ME!”

“Isaac, please…. I _don’t_ want to hurt you,” Skye said while raising her arms into a fighting position. “Think of your girlfriend. She’s out there and she misses you.”

“Kim…” Isaac trailed off, his thoughts about his girlfriend seemingly getting through to him. “NO! SHE DOESN’T MISS ME!”

Isaac assumed a primal stance and leapt towards Skye, taking her down effortlessly. Whatever gave the disheveled young man both his erratic mental faculty and superhuman abilities put him ahead of Skye in terms of raw strength. He continued to pummel the purple-haired woman, but his punches were blocked by Skye’s arms closely guarding her face. Once the punches stopped, Skye tried to reach for her walkie-talkie to contact Finn for help.

“Finn, do you copy!? Do you co—” Skye attempted to contact her ally, only to be cut off by Isaac smashing her walkie-talkie in one fell swoop.

Despite being outclassed in the strength department, Skye still had an acute awareness of her surroundings in combat situations. With that in mind (and considering her current predicament), she had no other alternative but to give Isaac a swift kick to the groin. This caused Isaac to loosen his grip on Skye’s arms, as he was forced to tend to his groinal area. Skye slid her way backwards before performing a handstand to get herself back up.

“Alright, Isaac,” Skye warned grimly. “I’m through playing around. Either you stand down right now and listen to reason for just one moment, or I’ll have no choice but kick your ass all over this room until you calm the hell down.”

Isaac growled angrily in response to Skye’s threat.

Before Skye could provide a response, she was grabbed on both arms by a few of the lab technicians. Several more began to dogpile on Isaac. Skye easily shoved aside the group of lab technicians who were latching on to her arms — aided by her superhuman strength — causing the technicians to be sent flying into the walls.

Meanwhile, Isaac didn’t seem to fare as well. His unknown abilities began to wane as the lab technicians kept him pacified. Skye charged into action and pulled off the technicians one-by-one, eventually helping to keep them away from the prone Isaac.

Skye extended her hand out to Isaac, a reassuring smile forming on her face. “I’m only here to help you. Trust me.”

It seemed that Isaac’s feral instincts and aggression induced by whatever experimentation was done on him had gradually dissipated as his super strength left him, so he had enough mental faculties to trust Skye and take her hand. She picked up Isaac off the ground and held him close.

That moment of tranquility was short-lived as the Syringe Mini-Lab door slammed shut while the emergency sirens rang even louder than usual. Smoke began to flow from the ceiling, eventually filling up the room. Skye let go of Isaac as she started coughing, weakness taking over her entire body. Isaac instantly stumbled to the floor face-first, felled by the tear gas that was inescapable. Soon enough, Skye succumbed to the tear gas’ tranquilizing effects, her whole body turning limp before she ultimately lost consciousness.


	4. Chapter 4

**Act IV – Sworn to Secrecy**

**_Psi MediLabs Facility, Detention Room – Just After Midnight_ **

Skye opened her eyes as an all-too familiar voice to her commanded her to wake up. Once regaining full consciousness, the sight of Brandt’s smug, cocky smile served as a rather unfriendly greeting. The man who had led efforts to capture Skye for an unknown benefactor just last night was there in the flesh, but without his three other cohorts accompanying him.

“I’ll give you this much,” Brandt sounded off, “You and your friend are quite the persistent duo. It’s too bad that I’m just that superior to your persistence.” The heavily-armed leader of the Repossession Task Force motioned towards the Detention Room’s door to reveal a handcuffed Finn being led into the room by two security guards. Skye could only stare in horror towards Finn’s direction

“If you or your men even lay one hand on him, I won’t hesitate to tear you apart,” Skye threatened Brandt and his men.

“I don’t think you’ll be in the position of doing anything to me or these fine gentlemen working here, Skye,” Brandt responded, an air of arrogance and superiority evident in his response. “Because, I believe there’s someone important you came here for?”

Brandt pointed to a cylindrical chamber that was being wheeled into the cell holding him and Skye. In that chamber was Isaac, heavily sedated and held in stasis using some bizarre liquid.

“You son of a bitch!” Skye roared defiantly in a rage at Isaac’s current state and Brandt’s apparent role in it.

“I’d watch my language if I were you,” Brandt began to explain, “Mr. Ellerton is being examined further due to anomalies we have detected in his body. Anomalies that appear to be similar to your predicament.”

“Which I bet you or whoever the hell you work for had something to do…” Skye shot back verbally.

“You could not be anymore in the wrong with your accusations,”  Brandt answered as he walked towards the chamber containing Isaac’s body. “Think of me and my employers as ‘repo men’ who have come to take back lost possessions.”

“You’re about to be a dead man if you don’t let my friends go,” Skye interjected before she slowly picked herself up off the ground. She had enough of Brandt’s presence and she was ready to do something about it.

“I would advise against doing anything rash, Skye,” Brandt uttered in that ever-so-confident tone of his. “Otherwise, both your geeky friend and Mr. Ellerton will live to regret your impulsiveness.”

Skye lowered her guard begrudgingly, being left with no alternative but to give in to Brandt’s demands.

Finn approached the glass door that was holding Skye, Brandt, and the cylinder tube containing Isaac, beginning to holler out at his friend to not let the bad guys have their way. The security guards keeping Finn hostage tackled him to the ground. This was enough to serve as a distraction for Skye, who bolted right at Brandt to send him smacking into the glass door he was standing in front of. She grabbed the handgun from Brandt’s tactical vest and pulled it on him.

“Tell me how to get Isaac out of that chamber,” Skye held the handgun right at Brandt’s forehead, ready to fire if needed. There was a sense of surprise dwelling within Skye that she’d even consider wielding a gun like she was doing at the moment. As far as she knew, she had never held any firearm before in her life. So why did it feel so familiar to her?

“You don’t have it in you to shoot me,” Brandt audaciously laughed.

“You’re right,” Skye admitted to the special forces-soldier-turned-r she had in her sights. “But I bet y’can’t say the same about this…”

With that, Skye quickly knocked out Brandt by pistol-whipping him. She then pointed her gun at the tube with Isaac inside, first shooting at what appeared to be the lock keeping the tube’s door locked, then shooting at the glass door of the cell she was in.

Skye sprinted to the glass door where the security guards were still piling up on Finn. She punched the spots where she shot at, shattering the glass door with one blow and startling the security guards. They stopped piling on Finn and tried to fight Skye. Of course, it didn’t end well for them, as Skye defeated them handily after slamming their heads against the wall.

“Ohhh, am I ever glad to see you beat the crap out of people,” Finn looked up to Skye with a smile on his face directed towards his savior.

“Save the swooning for later,” Skye insisted while breaking Finn out of his handcuffs, then leading him through the hole in the glass cell door that she had just created. “I’m gonna need your help.”

The two made their way to the chamber with Isaac still unconscious. Skye and Finn were able to get the chamber open with some effort (and partially thanks to Skye having shot out the lock keeping it closed), pulling Isaac’s body out of it.

“It’s okay… it’s okay… we’re getting you out of here, Isaac.” Skye leaned in close to Kimmy’s boyfriend, vowing that she and Finn would get him out in one piece. “Just stick close to us. You’re safe now.”

—

**_Moments Later…_ **

While Skye, Finn, and Isaac’s escape from the Detention Room went smoother than usual, the Psi MediLabs building was still under lockdown, with every available hand on deck tasked to find and eliminate them if necessary. The place would soon be crawling with heavily-armed men, so it was imperative to find a temporary hiding place. Luckily for the trio, they found an empty room on the second floor of the building, which made for a perfect spot to remain on the down low to keep Isaac safe.

“Isn’t this just great?” Finn complained, “There’s three of us in this building, and we’ll soon have to fend off every other hired security. Plus, that guy we encountered yesterday is still here somewhere. How are we gonna win?”

“It’s not a matter of winning,” Skye retorted. “It’s just a matter of getting the hell out of here so we can bring Isaac back home to your friend at the apartment. That said, Isaac, I’m really curious about how you got dragged into this whole mess.”

“First off, who are you anyway?” Isaac interjected with a question of his own. “I mean, it’s not everyday I end up running into some pink-haired woman who can throw people across the room and all that…”

“Okay…” Skye began to answer the question Isaac directed towards her, “My name is Skye. That’s all I really know about myself. As for the whole ‘tossing people across the room’ deal, that’s something that even I have no idea about. I have superhuman strength. I can run fast. I’m kinda invincible. That’s all there is to it.”

“Oh.” Isaac said flatly. “I suppose you want to know about my plight, then?”

“That’s what I did ask before, so…” Skye pointed out.

“Well, my head’s feeling pretty messed up these past few days,” Isaac started to recount his story, “I just remember that I was diagnosed with a rare form of a respiratory illness a few months ago. One morning, my body felt like it was on fire. Like I was about to explode on the inside. My lungs felt like hell nearly every single day of my life from that point on.”

“How did Kimmy even cope with all this?” Finn questioned.

“I didn’t want to worry Kim, so that’s why I tried my best to keep my sickness a secret.” Isaac admitted. “I loved her too much to put her through emotional suffering, so that’s why I decided to seek out… alternatives to see if I could get my illness cured. That’s when I met a man who said he could cure me and make me better than I already was. He said something about helping me find ‘Singularity’ or some weird new-age bullshit to that effect.”

Skye’s mind trailed off for a moment when Isaac mentioned that the man in his story told him about the idea of ‘Singularity’ — the very same word that Brandt had used the day before when he confronted her. Was there a deeper connection present between Isaac’s empowerment and what had happened to her?

“That man promised me that I’d be better off with what he was prescribing me, I was the world’s biggest dumbass for believing him.” Isaac scolded himself for being so desperate in finding a cure for his ailment. “At first, the experiments went well and I lived life as I always did. Then, I started losing control. I became something else.”

“We all have our regrets, Isaac,” Skye confided, attempting her own version of giving sage advice for the afflicted young man, “Trusting that man with your life was probably stupid and incredibly ill-advised on your part, but I think your heart was in the right place.”

“If you asked me, I’d say Kimmy is lucky to have someone as caring and dedicated to her like you.”

“Well, that’s something new from you,” Finn, surprised at Skye’s attempt at pathos, quietly interjected himself into the conversation. “Superpowered badass and a master motivator. Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Just don’t get yourself used to it,” Skye dismissed Finn’s praises, almost snapping right back to her usual demeanor. “Oh, and Isaac… there’s something I think that you need to see.”

Skye pulled out a piece of paper from her bag with the now-infamous arrowhead sigil from her visions and showed it to Isaac.

“I feel like I know what that is,” Isaac confessed, “But every time I try to think about its significance, my mind feels like it’s trapped in a blizzard of confusion. I have seen that symbol before, though.”

Before Isaac could elaborate further, he was soon disrupted by the now-familiar sounds of the building’s security alarms blaring once more, as well as an unfamiliar beeping that echoed with irregularity.

“Am I going crazy, or is anyone else hearing a weird beep?” Finn uttered nervously.

Skye didn’t bother to answer Finn’s query because she knew what the beeping noise was from. She reached into the back of her vest and pulled out a rounded chip-sized device that was pulsating a repeated red light. It was a homing beacon, and it was going to alert Brandt’s men to their location in mere moments. Skye didn’t waste any time in destroying the homing beacon, easily doing so with one stomp of her foot.

“That guy from the detention room must’ve planted it on you while you fought him,” Finn concluded.

The reality of the situation was clear: They’d have to find a way to escape the building before they’d be overwhelmed with security forces armed to the teeth with weaponry that could easily put them down.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to try and strongarm your way through the people that are coming to kill us,” Finn said in a panic to Skye, “And these R.T.F. guys are people who might be packing the same weapons that nearly killed you on the PATH yesterday.”

Finn still had the memory of Brandt’s forces almost ending Skye’s life with their unknown, advanced firearms fresh in his mind. He didn’t want a case of history repeating itself.

“If you have any better ideas, Finn,” Skye questioned as gunfire began to burst through the door of the room they were in, “I’m takin’ requests!”

As the bullets flew fast from Psi MediLabs security personnel, Skye, Finn, and Isaac took cover behind a nearby desk while they plotted out their next move.

“What are we up against?” Finn turned to his friends for an answer on the current situation they were facing.

Isaac lifted his head for a brief moment to see the people shooting away at them through the door. “Looks like we’ve got four guys with guns trying to kill us all.”

“Hold on, guys. I think I might have an idea….” Skye whispered to both Finn and Isaac, “Get behind me.”

Finn and Isaac followed the order given to them and moved themselves behind Skye, who turned the desk so that the shorter end was facing her. She then kicked the desk towards the door, sending it flying right at the security detail that was shooting at her friends. The desk knocked aside a couple of the guards, while sending two of them over the railing they were standing behind.

“Holy shit!” Isaac bursted out in excitement, “You weren’t kidding about the whole ‘superhuman strength’ thing…”

“If you’re done with the hysterics, I suggest we get movin’,” Skye dusted off her hands while getting Finn and Isaac back up to lead them out of the empty room.

Once the trio exited the room, they saw the sight of even more security forces storming the stairs and hallways, all of whom were heavily armed. Leading them all was Brandt, who had recovered from the beating that Skye had given him earlier in the building’s Detention Room. That confident exterior he had when he first confronted Skye’s friends was supplanted with frustration and a determined focus to not only take her down once and for all, but to bring in Isaac to his employers.

“Got any other bright ideas?” Finn blurted out. “Said idea better not boil down to ‘beat the crap out of everybody’.”

“I might have one…” Isaac spoke up, pulling out a certain syringe from the pocket of his jacket. “It’s something your friend Skye would call ‘incredibly stupid’, Finn, but it’s the only way we’ll all get out of here alive.”

Isaac injected himself with the syringe, the orange liquid contained within emptying into his arm in mere moments. He kneeled over holding his stomach in pain, the mystery serum’s effects beginning to take hold once more. Brandt’s security forces all converged to where Skye, Finn, and Isaac were standing on the second floor, soon surrounding them.

“You’re all surrounded by the finest security detail money could buy,” Brandt loaded his assault rifle with a magazine, “I recommend that you and your friend give up Mr. Ellerton so that they don’t have to take him by force.”

“You’re. Not. Taking. Me. Away!” Isaac howled in anger as he assumed a primal stance. The serum had transformed him again, and with that, given him his superhuman strength back. He went right after Brandt, knocking him down to the ground.

“Fire at them all!” Brandt coughed out his orders to the security forces, who all began firing at Isaac with their weapons. Meanwhile, another group of guards started shooting at Skye and Finn.

“I’ll apologize later for this…” Skye looked at Finn before unexpectedly pushing him back into the empty room that they had left earlier before she proceeded to do her thing to fight off the scores of security guards openly firing away at Isaac. Sure, pushing him aside was a bit “extreme” on Skye’s part, but it was to keep him safe from the action that she was about to throw herself into.

Skye’s enhanced agility allowed her to move smoothly as she knocked out a group of security guards one-by-one with a series of combos that brought to mind a modified variant of Krav Maga techniques. One guard was taken out by a stylized spinning heel kick, while another got his clock cleaned with a hammer strike to the neck, and yet another guard was kayoed by a fierce shoulder throw.

The two guards that were still standing tried to approach Skye with their assault rifles held close to them. Before any shots could be fired, Skye grabbed one of the guard’s rifles and then drove the buttstock hard into the guard’s chest, before finally taking him down with a back elbow. The last guard tried to fire at Skye with his rifle, but he ended up being disarmed, then ultimately sent careening over the railing and crashing down to the first floor by a forearm strike from the superpowered young woman.

Skye turned her attention to the next group of guards that surrounded both the brawling Brandt and Isaac, who were looking on at their leader’s fight. However, once it was clear that Isaac was overpowering Brandt with his superhuman strength caused by the serum, the guards all jumped in simultaneously to try and pry Isaac off of their boss. Brandt crawled his way out of his prone position and stood back up to watch his men pummel on Isaac. He smiled, but that soon turned into a look of shock as the guards that piled up on Isaac were all pushed away and sent soaring all around, with some sent over the railings, and others right into the walls on the opposite end.

“You’re mine.” Isaac snarled at Brandt, who only pointed his gun at the serum-enhanced young man. That did him no good as Isaac once again pounced at the ex-special forces soldier, clawing at him repeatedly until Brandt was left unconscious. Isaac didn’t let up, however, even after Brandt was already beaten and stunned, continuing his assault. This forced Skye to step in.

“Isaac, stop! Stop! It’s over!” Skye reasoned with the crazed, superpowered youth. “He’s been knocked out. Calm down.”

“CALM DOWN!?” Isaac hissed once he stopped his merciless assault on Brandt. “AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGH!”

“Oh, for the love of…” Skye muttered to herself before getting attacked once again by Isaac. Finn peeked out from the room he was in to see his friend mauling his new friend.

Isaac grabbed Skye by the neck and lifted her up before slamming her against the wall. He tightened the grip around her neck, but Skye’s superhuman endurance was keeping her alive through all this. Even so, Skye realized that she couldn’t stay in this position for long because Isaac was eventually going to literally squeeze the life out of her.

“Isaac….you….n-need….need to stop this…” Skye weakly uttered, “This… monster… it isn’t you. This isn’t the man who Kimmy fell in love with. Fight the serum. Don’t let it take over…”

“Kim…..? She… she…. Loves… Me?” Isaac quietly growled as he slowly loosened his stranglehold on Skye’s neck before letting her go. Skye dropped to the floor, feeling a bit unsteady after Isaac’s assault.

Isaac stared at his blood-stained hands with a wounded look on his face. Tears began to form around his eyes, as a realization of what he had become in his pursuit for a cure to his illness took over. Isaac was devastated that his bid to make Kimmy happy turned out the way it did. Finn went to check up on Skye for a brief moment before going over to the seemingly-calm Isaac.

Brandt was starting to awaken from momentary unconsciousness and saw his three adversaries in a moment of vulnerability.

“Like fish in a barrel,” Brandt chuckled to himself as he slid over to one of the fallen guards and took his high-powered assault rifle/grenade launcher hybrid, replacing its regular rounds with a magazine filled with blue-tinted bullets — the very same ones he and his men had used a day before to moderate success. He aimed the weapon directly at Isaac and the still-defenseless Skye.

Isaac quickly turned behind him and saw Brandt preparing to fire at him and his friends. He didn’t have enough time to think to hard, so he was left with no other option. He leapt right into the line of fire, being pumped with the glowing blue bullets in doing so. The bullets did manage to hurt Isaac, but he was still able to prevent Brandt from firing anymore rounds as he smothered the sociopathic soldier before he could do anymore damage.

“ISAAC!” Skye shouted out in exasperation as she saw the sight of the man she had just met today engaging Brandt one final time. She tried to raise her body to get herself to Isaac’s aid, with Finn helping her up.

They went over to Isaac’s body, pulling him away from on top of the yet-again-unconscious Brandt, before helping him up back to the room they had hid in earlier.

“We need to get him to a doctor!” Skye looked at Finn for an answer. “Where the hell is the nearest hospital?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Act V – We Honorable People**

**_Toronto General Health Centre – Early Tuesday, January 19th, 2016_ **

A short time after the incident at Psi MediLabs, Finn and Skye managed to bring Isaac to the Emergency department of Toronto General Health Centre to have him treated right away. Isaac’s noble actions to save Skye from Brandt’s attempted assassination left him with five bullets lodged in his chest. Due to the mysterious attributes the bullets possessed, they were capable of slowly but surely killing Isaac, so the doctors had to act fast. After a complex, yet short surgery, doctors were able to remove all the bullets from Isaac’s chest. Unfortunately, it became clear that his survival was in serious doubt. Once the surgery ended, they moved Isaac to a room where he could hopefully recover from his injuries.

Skye stood over the sleeping Isaac, thinking about all she had been through with him. While she had first encountered him under hostile circumstances, Skye came to know that there was a good, dedicated, and loving man embedded within Isaac and whatever experimentations had been done on him. He had been cursed by the experiments his body was forced through, but in the end, Isaac used his abilities to be the best of himself.

Her silent vigil was cut short by the arrival of Finn and Kimmy, who was told of what had happened to Isaac by Finn (with certain details omitted, for obvious reasons). Kimmy could only gasp in a mix of relief and horror as she saw Isaac’s unconscious form laying in bed. She approached the bed and sat beside it, giving Isaac a firm, warm hug. On that note, Skye left the couple to rekindle their love, exiting the room along with Finn. She had one final look at the couple through the room’s door and saw Kimmy continuing her embrace of Isaac.

“Long day, huh?” Finn said in a somber tone.

“Yeah, but not just for the both of us,” Skye resounded. “It’s been rough. But now, I’m starting to understand what’s going on. I’m seeing a common thread here. Whatever this ‘Singularity’ thing is, we need to get to the bottom of it.”

“Singularity?” Finn asked in surprise, taken aback by what Skye was talking about.

“That special forces guy Brandt mentioned it to us on Sunday, and the man that turned Isaac into, for lack of a better term, a monster apparently brought it up to him,” Skye reiterated. “I just can’t escape the feeling that it’s all tied together. My superpowers, the experiments done on Isaac, Psi MediLabs, Brandt, and especially that arrowhead symbol… something’s really rotten at the core of it all.”

“Well, what’s our next move?” Finn queried once again.

Skye thought to herself for a short moment. She only had one thing on her mind. “We’re going to put an end to whatever the hell Singularity is once and for all.”

**Next: “Missing Persons Case”**

**(c)2016 M. Quill, WQW Productions**


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